Europeans Flock to Online-Retail Sites

Holiday-Traffic Jump
Reflects Wider Use
Of Faster Connections

LONDON -- Online retail traffic is surging in Europe this Christmas as increasingly net-savvy customers take full advantage of wider broadband penetration.

Customer visits to U.K. retail sites rose 69% in the week ended Dec. 3 compared with the preholiday period, while visits to German sites rose 72%, according to Internet data provider comScore Networks. ComScore, a U.S.-based research company, measures traffic by the number of...